Brands Hatch: Niall Breen race report

BREEN STILL IN THE HUNT WITH FIFTH AND SIXTH AT BRANDS HATCH
Niall Breen made the best of a tough weekend at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix
circuit, taking sixth and fifth places respectively for rounds 11 and 12 of
the Lloyds TSB Insurance British...

BREEN STILL IN THE HUNT WITH FIFTH AND SIXTH AT BRANDS HATCH

Niall Breen made the best of a tough weekend at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix
circuit, taking sixth and fifth places respectively for rounds 11 and 12 of
the Lloyds TSB Insurance British Formula 3 Championship on Sunday.

Saturday's qualifying yielded two ninth place starting positions for
Sunday's two races. Although he was a little disappointed with his
qualifying results, there didn't seem to be any answer to increasing the
performance of the Bar One Racing Carlin Motorsport Dallara.

By Sunday morning there were further complications when Breen's engineer
Jimmy Goodwin was rushed into hospital. Fortunately however, Jimmy had
conscientiously set up the car ready for Sunday's first race before leaving
for an appendicectomy!

Breen was prepared to make a good start for Sunday morning's Round 11 first
race and that's just what he did as the lights went green. The 21-year old
Dundalk driver shot into sixth place following series leader Marko Asmer,
Stephen Jelley, Jonathan Kennard, Sebastian Hohenthal and Carlin team mate,
Maro Engel.

After four laps, the safety car was deployed briefly for Alberto Valerio
who'd rolled his Carlin Dallara after a touch with John Martin and shortly
after Hohenthal was given a drive through penalty for a jump start which
elevated Breen up to fifth. However fifth became sixth again when Rudolfo
Gonzales, passed him at Westfield, taking Engel two laps later at the same
point. Niall kept in touch with Engel but at the flag it was Asmer from
Jelley, Kennard, Gonzales, Engel and Breen.

The second race on Sunday afternoon was action-packed as Carlin's Sam Bird
shot off the line so fast and into the lead as to incur a drive through
jump start penalty. Gonzales was also given a jump start penalty and this
left Hohenthal first from Asmer, Atte Mustonen, Breen and Michael Devaney.
Although Niall dropped back from the leading trio, he was holding off
Devaney until the 18th lap when the Bar One Racing Dallara oversteered into
the gravel at Dingle Dell and his fellow countryman was through to fourth.
Breen recovered to fifth, which was where he finished behind Hohenthal,
Mustonen, Asmer and Devaney.

Rookie Breen drops to fifth place in the series but the points have closed
up. Asmer Leads with 189 from Engel (111), Bird (106), Jelley (100) and
Breen (95). The next two rounds are in Spa Francorchamps on July 28/29th.